Roadrunner Air Conditioning, Heating & Refrigeration Blog

A Look at Your Heating Practices and Home Efficiency

If you are like most of the population throughout the country, chances are you’d like to spend as little as possible on your energy bills. When it comes to saving on an important necessity, like your heating, you might not even know where to start. After all, most of this system is hidden, with the heater cabinet located out of view and the air ducts snaking through the walls, crawlspaces, and ceilings.

Because of this, you may not realize the following practices can affect the efficiency with which your heating system runs, and your heating bills as a result. Please read on for some tips that will help you to make small changes with big rewards for your heating efficiency the remainder of this winter season.

Don’t Have an Amateur Install Your Heater

This is one of the biggest mistakes a homeowner can in their heating practices. If you want to maintain proper heating efficiency, the first step is to have the system installed by technicians who have the knowledge and training to get the job done right the first time. This includes properly sizing it, which involves a more complex formula than you may realize. Heaters can be too small, yes, but they can also be too large!

You probably already understand why a heater that’s too small won’t work for your living space, as it will have to run constantly to keep temperatures up. But if you have too large a system, you can be left with just as big of a headache. The heater will run for brief cycles and turn on too frequently. This is known as short-cycling. Not only is it a pain to listen do, but it wears down the components of the heater faster than nromal, and short-cycling requires too much energy from the heater to function.

Don’t Ignore Your Ductwork

Ignoring ductwork is heating practices mistake #2! Your heater’s air ducts play an essential role in how efficiently the system works. Poor sealing, cracks in the ducts, and even poorly installed air ducts can let heat out of the system and into unused parts of your living space, like crawlspaces or wherever else the ducts run.

If you notice you can’t get comfortable in one section of your home, damaged ductwork can certainly be the cause. However, you’re still paying for the same amount of heating—if not more if you try to turn up the thermostat to compensate for lost air. You only hurt your when you ignore your ducts.

Don’t Misuse the Thermostat

Turning the temperature up even a couple degrees more than necessary can be a big waste of energy and fuel. We get the temptation—you come home from work after a chilly day and you want to turn up the thermostat as high as it will go to warm up the house fast. But this does more harm than good for your system! It causes it to use consume energy than it needs to, costing you energy and money.